In 1970, Bill Daniels owned a professional basketball team in Utah, called the Utah Stars. The basketball players were really good on the court but not good at earning money. The financial problems got so bad that Bill had to cancel games and shut everything down in the middle of the season. He couldn’t afford to pay the players and vendors, and all the tickets the season ticket holders had purchased became worthless.

Slowly, Bill regained financial footing. It took him five years to recover. Over these years, he had kept all the contact information of every season ticket holder, every vendor, and every player. Although he was not obligated to do so, he paid it all back plus 8% interest per year for every year of those five years. Business Professor Kent Noble explained,

“Bill Daniels took his worst professional moment and turned it into his very best. He turned it into a moment we’re talking about 40 years later. That man was known for integrity. In other words, it was absolutely his personal brand.”

So, what is your personal brand? Others perceive your brand by the words you choose, your facial expressions, social media posts, and activities. In Bill's case, it was the way his personal values shone through during times of hardship.

Your college years are a unique opportunity for self-discovery, growth, and skill development. You can get involved in clubs, service organizations, and professional associations to increase your network and discover your interests.

You are inevitably busy with classes, a social life, and work, but actively develop and maintain a professional brand that showcases your strengths, passion, and potential to differentiate yourself and make a lasting impression on employers, colleagues, and industry leaders.

This chapter provides guidelines on identifying, living, cultivating, and leveraging your personal brand.

Identify and Live your brand

Your brand is not what you say it is; it is what others say about you when they hear your name. It communicates the skills, talents, and values you represent to the outside world, so carefully cultivate your personal brand to make lasting impressions.

To leverage your brand as an asset, you must first know what your brand is, align your online presence with your brand, serve others, and build your professional and personal networks.

DEFINE YOUR BRAND

Identify Strengths

To define your brand, identify your strengths, skills, and values. Then synthesize them into a clear one-sentence statement of who you are personally and professionally.

The Clifton 2.0 Strengths assessment is a great tool to discover your natural talents and strengths. You can take it by purchasing the book or visiting your university career center. However, not all your talents are identifiable through a test.

List Skills

Your hard skills—what you know how to do—are easily showcased on a resume. However, when defining your brand, identify your soft skills—important traits like diligence, patience, and attention to detail. If you are unsure about your soft skills, ask someone who loves you and knows you well to give you three adjectives they’d use to describe you. Reflect on and write about times when you demonstrated these soft skills, which are more difficult to showcase on a resume, but equally important to your brand.

Reinforce Core Values

Next, examine your core values: What is important to you? Family? Service? Wisdom? You get to decide, but regularly remind yourself of these values. Define them, identify why they matter to you, and remind yourself of a time when you expressed them. Regarding expressing your values, social psychologist Amy Cuddy states,

"doing so creates a level of personal power that anchors your self-esteem, lowers your stress and anxiety, lowers stress hormones, and allows you to perform better on stressful tasks—including interviewing for internships and jobs."

According to Cuddy, personal power is power over the self—to access those skills, values, and knowledge you already possess. When you feel personally powerless, you cannot access your skills.

Develop personal power by understanding your skills, affirming them, and acting on those values. Doing so will make you an action-oriented, creative, interesting person with an impeccable brand.

ALIGN YOUR BRAND

Once you define your brand, align it with your online presence.

Your brand is far more than your online presence, but what others see online about you will be their first—and perhaps only—impression of you, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Potential employers, internship managers, etc. will research your online presence to get a sense of who you are.

Therefore, align your online presence with your brand. If others see you as congruent and consistent, they will naturally want to be associated with you.

If you think that kind of research is creepy, think again. Jeff Williams, VP of enterprise and HR solutions at Paychex, says “It’s 2023, and what is posted on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter—and even Facebook for the nostalgic—is an accessible, noninvasive way of gaining insight . . . you’re not stalking or creeping. You’re accessing information anyone can see.”

But that peeking can create bias, so align your profile with your desired personal brand.

build your network

Networking is about forming long-lasting relationships of trust and service. To some degree, you already network. You have “networked” with your friends for years: served them, shared ideas, and made memories. You network as you sit in class next to students you did not previously know and by meeting friends of friends. Continue building your network by attending events, seeking mentors, and serving others.

Attend Networking Events

Attend networking events to establish your brand and forge new relationships. Identify what you can do to add value. Ask less about what others can do for you and more about what you can do for others. As world-renowned economist Arthur Brooks states, doing so will make you happier, so you are bound to be more successful. In other words, those who give get.

Seek Mentors

Mentorship significantly enhances a student’s personal and professional growth. Mentors provide guidance, wisdom, and practical insights based on their experiences. They offer networking opportunities, boost confidence, and help students develop essential skills. Having a mentor who believes in your abilities can positively affect your career possibilities.

Professors, co-workers, family members, church leaders, and friends want to help you build your network. People generally like to help others, a tendency known as generativity—helping the next generation. But before you seek help from more experienced associates, share your brand—your strengths, skills, and core values—with others.

You might think you have nothing to offer, especially more experienced professionals who ostensibly could not gain anything by their association with you. Think again about your strengths, skills, and values. You can offer fresh perspectives, the latest theories in your discipline, new contacts, and honest admiration.

You might be wondering how to find a mentor. Regardless of your approach, be specific and genuine. Clearly express why you seek mentorship and what you hope to gain.

First, leverage your existing networks: reach out to professors, alumni, or professionals you admire. Next, leverage platforms like LinkedIn, using hashtags like #CareerAdvice, #Leadership, or #Mentoring. Explore posts and profiles associated with these hashtags to identify potential mentors. Finally, attend service and networking events where you can meet professionals in your desired industry.

Turn Networking on its Head

You might be thinking, “I would rather do ANYTHING than attend a service or networking event.” Turn this idea from an inward-centered viewpoint to an outward-centered viewpoint. The next time you attend a service or networking event, find the one person who looks more miserable than you feel. Introduce yourself. Ask about that person for a few minutes.

As you do, you will forget about your feelings of anxiety or self-doubt. That person will never forget your small, yet powerful act of service. Through those small acts of service, you will begin to build a diverse, powerful network of influential professionals—with yourself at the core.

Leverage your brand to land internships and jobs

College-educated workers in the U.S. hold an average of 12 jobs in their lifetimes, and more than 4.5 of those jobs come between the ages of 25 and 34. As you navigate college and continue to build your network, you can leverage your personal brand to help you land internships and jobs.

You can ask experienced professionals for informational interviews, you can polish your resume and cover letter, you can enhance your professional Handshake and LinkedIn profiles, and you can practice interviewing to feel confident as you enter the hiring landscape.

Informational Interviews

As you build your network, be on the lookout for experienced professionals who show some interest—remember their generativity. Ask them if they’d be willing to participate in an informational interview. Instead of answering the questions, you ask them in an informational interview.

Informational interviews are a great way for you to learn more about an industry, position, or career path. You must invest the time to prepare, but the benefits are great. You will receive specific advice, expand your network, gain inside details, and practice your interviewing skills.

The best way to ask for an informational interview is to email the person. Use a polite, professional tone and use the phrase informational interview in the subject line. Include this information in your request:

• How you learned about the person
• Why you want to interview the person
• How much time you want to reserve for the interview (never exceed one hour)
• Suggested dates and times
• A polite thank-you and signature line

If you participate, do not spend more than one hour—remember the professional’s time is valuable. Before you start, ask the person for a time limit—and then set your timer. Do not go over that limit.

resumes and cover letters

The resume and cover letter may seem outdated, but career expert Michael Tomaszewski surveyed hiring decision-makers to determine whether these employment documents are still relevant in 2024. In short, they are, so create at least one resume and cover letter that you can tailor to different positions.

Resumes

The resume showcases your hard skills—what you know how to do. It provides a snapshot of quantifiable educational, work, and personal experiences that demonstrate your basic qualifications to do a job.

Because it is a snapshot, the resume does not need to be a laundry list of everything you’ve ever done in your life; it should be tailored to a specific position. Instead, create a unique version of your resume for every position you apply for. Organize the information so a recruiter or hiring manager can easily find your skills that match the job posting.

Education and Experience

Include your education, relevant coursework, extracurricular involvement, and educational awards/scholarships. Also include your work experience and internships, even if they are unpaid.

The 2023 LinkedIn Global Talent Trends Report on the future of recruiting states that skills matching is a top priority, so clearly articulate your skills so hiring managers and recruiters easily understand your skillset.

Volunteer and Interests

Since you are young and may not have tons of work experience, showcase volunteer work, humanitarian efforts, and school club or extracurricular involvement. Add personal interests to create a unique touch that gives the employer a glimpse into your personality.

Cover Letters

Whereas the resume provides a concise snapshot of your qualifications, the cover letter adds detail and depth to your application. It gives the hiring manager insight into your personality and motivation for seeking a particular position.

For example, your cover letter can expand on the experience and accomplishments on your resume and describe how you are a good fit for a position. It can also explain unusual circumstances and lack of experience or experience gaps.

Written and verbal communication are favored across industries. Your cover letter is a great place for you to showcase your written communication skills, so even if the application says “cover letter optional,” submit one to demonstrate your communication skills.

Although not all employers require a cover letter, prepare one because it can increase your chances of getting hired. The majority of hiring managers still read cover letters, and more of them use the cover letter as a deciding factor in deciding which applicants to invite for an interview.

Once you produce high-quality employment documents, post them on media sites like Handshake and LinkedIn.

Create and polish handshake and LinkedIn Profiles

You need a strong online presence that showcases your brand, and LinkedIn is a great place to do that. However, because LinkedIn is so large, college students should consider first creating a profile on a university site like Handshake, a site dedicated to helping students find the right job no matter where they are from or who they know.

The number-one site for college students, Handshake is available through 1,400 colleges, universities, and community colleges. Contact your university’s or college’s career center to learn how to set up your Handshake profile.

As BYU Career Center director Justin Jones states, “LinkedIn is like the ocean where you can easily get overlooked. Handshake is like a tidepool where you can easily get noticed.” Recruiters come to your university specifically to recruit its students, so creating a Handshake profile can only help you.

Continue to polish your LinkedIn profile, especially as you gain more experience and contacts across industries. Having a LinkedIn profile helps you establish connections beyond your university: with friends, family, community and church associates, and other professionals who do not recruit through Handshake.

For more information about the advantages and disadvantages of creating a LinkedIn profile, click here.

At most, creating your profile takes time, and spending time on professional networking is a good investment. But do not spend time connecting with strangers. Read below what LinkedIn ads expert AJ Wilcox says about personalized connection requests.

LinkedIn also has a profile meter that assesses the quality of your profile. Click here for a list of recommended LinkedIn profile review sites.

Interviews

Before you get noticed by recruiters or other contacts in your network, you should be ready to answer impromptu and formal interview questions, especially the most common tell-me-about-yourself question.

For more information on answering industry-specific interview questions and commonly asked behavioral questions, contact your school’s career center or visit standout.com.

The best way to prepare for interviews is to practice, practice, practice. You can practice with others, but if you do not have a practice partner, try online interview platforms. One such platform, Big Interview helps you develop your elevator pitch, practice answering industry-specific interview questions, and master answering commonly asked behavioral interview questions.

A succinct, persuasive description of yourself, the “elevator pitch” is an important networking tool. Practice relentlessly so you can flawlessly deliver this impromptu answer at a moment’s notice: Should you find yourself in an elevator with an important contact—or more likely, when meeting people at a reception or professional mixer—you’ll feel comfortable fluently and succinctly presenting yourself.

In Conclusion

As you identify and practice cultivating your brand, create high-quality employment documents, polish your professional online presence, and practice interviewing, you will feel more confident approaching the hiring phase of your college career. You will also feel more confident as advancement opportunities present themselves because you will have a sense of personal power that communicates to others that you are ready for any adventure that awaits!

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